Assaulted girl's father speaks

May 29, 2009|By Steve Zucker News-Review Staff Writer

Assaulted girl's father speaks

BOYNE CITY - The father of a 9-year-old girl whose throat was cut by an intruder in her home early April 26 in Boyne City thinks police should have released more information about the incident to the public.

Nelson Duncan, the father of Adriana Duncan, addressed his comments to the Boyne City City Commission during the public comment portion of their regular semi-monthly meeting today, Tuesday.

Police have said that ambulance crews were called to the Duncan's home on East Michigan Street at about 4:19 a.m. on April 26 when the girl's mother called 9-1-1 saying she was awakened by the girl who was saying someone had hurt her.

Police said when the first responders arrived on the scene the assailant had left the home.

Adriana was transported to Northern Michigan Regional Hospital by ambulance where she was treated for her injuries and released.

In speaking to the city commission today, Duncan provided much more detail about the case than police had so far. Duncan said on the morning of the incident he was sleeping at the Boyne City Ambulance Department where he was on duty as an emergency medical technician. He said he learned of his daughter's injuries when he was dispatched, along with police, to his own home.

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"Through contact with my spouse, I discovered that someone had broken into our residence and tried to murder my 9-year-old daughter by slitting her throat," Duncan said. "Apparently, (Adriana's) brave struggle and screams caused the intruder to flee."

Duncan said the deepest cut was about 5 inches long and just missed her jugular vein.

"My daughter has recovered well, although the scars and mental trauma still remain," he said.

Duncan, who said he has served as a police officer both in the military and with the Michigan State Police, said the police should have released more information about the case.

He said the lack of information has given the community a false sense of security.

"Many people here do not lock their doors, because they think, 'I live in Northern Michigan, it's safe here.' I am telling you, you had better lock your doors," Duncan said. "It appears to me that there are people in this community that are more worried about protecting our tourism image then with protecting our children."

Duncan went on to say that the release of additional information might have spawned additional leads in the case.

"More leads might have come out already if people in the community had known the severity of this crime. They might have heard someone talking about how my daughter was injured. They needed to know that the assailant may have used one of our kitchen knives, left foot tracks leading to the west from our home or and that he/she left a 'Busch' brand beer can at the crime scene."

The city commission made no comments in response to Duncan's statement during the meeting.

Boyne City Police Chief Randy Howard was not in the room when Duncan read his statement. When asked for a comment about it following the meeting, Howard deferred until after he had time to listen to the recording of the meeting. Howard did say investigators have no new leads in the case and are still waiting for results to come back from the state police crime lab on evidence collected at the scene.

Officials with the Charlevoix County Prosecutor's office were not immediately available for comment.